According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a grand jury in Houston indicted a business owner last week on charges of withholding hundreds of thousands of employee tax payments.
According to U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei’s announcement on Friday, Joseth Limon, 48, reportedly neglected to file tax returns for his firm and pay excess taxes that his company withheld from employee paychecks.
Since 2013, Limon allegedly owned Platinum Employment Group, Inc., which provided temporary workers to companies in the Houston region.
The Department of Justice claims that between 2016 and 2018, the corporation gave out over $3.5 million to its workers and withheld $450,000 from their salaries.
However, the justice department claimed that during that time, Limon failed to submit any employment tax returns on behalf of Platinum and failed to pay the employment taxes that Platinum withheld from its employees’ paychecks to the Internal Revenue Service.
Federal income tax must typically be withheld from employees’ paychecks by business employers. According to the federal government, employers are expected to file the necessary tax return with the IRS in order to disclose wages, tips, and other compensation received to an employee.
The business reportedly failed to file any Forms 941 for any of the 2016–2018 calendar quarters or pay any of the trust-fund taxes that were due. According to court documents, employees’ W-2 forms were not sent to the Social Security Administration.
According to the justice department, Limon could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000.
